Just thought I'd share an interesting article I came across today. Personally, I've really been struggling with the physical ups and downs related to monthly cycles the past couple of years and can totally relate to what the author speaks to in her article. It was reassuring to know that so much of what I've noticed about my own body is felt by others too. On the bright side, it looks like my body will be synced up nicely for top performance as it relates to this "stuff" for my upcoming marathon

Great article. I have been struggling with motivation and fatigue. I am in taper for a race on Sunday, but I have noticed my legs have been sore after 2 easy runs which has not been the normal for me. Running has been a struggle the past few days and I'm due to start my period this weekend. And holy cow, someone pass the chocolate!!!

If all that you read is everything you believe then let go, then let go, then let go.

"Don’t let negativity rent space in your brain for free. That is how you become a badass…by excavating her from inside you. You don’t have to become someone else. You need to identify the effing awesome parts of you that are your tools to work with, and maximize those." -Lauren Fleshman

Great to hear how everyone is doing! I'll admit to being jealous at missing out on the spring racing season this year! I'm 38 weeks and still waddling along. Once I passed 36 weeks or so, I decided that sheer stubbornness was going to get me right to the end!

scrumhalfgirl wrote:Great to hear how everyone is doing! I'll admit to being jealous at missing out on the spring racing season this year! I'm 38 weeks and still waddling along. Once I passed 36 weeks or so, I decided that sheer stubbornness was going to get me right to the end!

Oh my goodness scrummy. You are so close!!! I started to wonder recently when you were going to have that baby.

Kind of sad we won't be playing leap frog at ORW this year. Yet kinda happy I have a leg up on 'ya at least for the moment

I had a baby! For those not on FB, Felix was born on Tuesday by scheduled c section and was 6lb 8oz. My OB told everyone in the OR about my running up until the end - I guess my abdominals made it hard to get baby out! Recovery is going well and enjoying some time off my feet!

scrumhalfgirl wrote:I had a baby! For those not on FB, Felix was born on Tuesday by scheduled c section and was 6lb 8oz. My OB told everyone in the OR about my running up until the end - I guess my abdominals made it hard to get baby out! Recovery is going well and enjoying some time off my feet!

Congrats again scrummy!! He looks so sweet. And about the abs - awesome!!!

Miss*Smiles wrote:Scrummy I am curious (feel free to ignore me or PM me if this is too personal), after the c- section, do they put baby on your chest right away? Congratulations again!

depends on the hospital - at mine, they showed him, took him to be checked quickly right next to me and then he was on me skin to skin within 1-2 minutes. C was actually latched on right in the OR while I was still being closed! Dad takes baby for about 3-5 minutes at the end of the surgery while they transfer mom from the operating table to the bed to move to recovery, and then you're back together skin to skin that whole time and eventually get wheeled to your room together. The Montfort is very maternal-baby health friendly and their policies reflect it. There's actually a thread on *the other* board about the "skin-to-skin" c-sections at Sunnybrook in Toronto, where they actually pass the baby under the curtain! Will try and tag you in it.

I;ve heard that in some other hospitals, Dad can do skin to skin but mom can't hold baby until in recovery (or even later). Of course, all this assumes mom and baby are doing well immediately after birth.

I'm glad to hear that all the RM mommas are doing so great! I'm loving the updates. Sorry that I've been MIA. It seems that I have no free time anymore (hmmm, I wonder why!?).

We're doing ok over here. A had her big 6 month birthday last weekend. She's doing great. We had her doctor's check-up a few days ago and she's a long baby with a big head (85th percentile for both) and 50th percentile for weight. We got the go-ahead to run with the BOB too so I've done a couple smaller runs this week - first one was 20 min and the second one was 28 min. I'm still doing 10:1's. Once I run more consistently I might ditch the walk breaks, we'll see. We've started solids too. She loves bananas and avocados so far.

I'm going to be doing a short triathlon later this summer for fun but I think that I will have a run focus this year since it's so easy to run while on mat leave. I need to get faster again.

So happy to see this!! Yes stroller running is awesome. It's my go-to for when he's fussy- usually he quiets right down. I did a long run this morning- a teeny bit more than half marathon distance. I found that where I used to be able to run long without water/food, since it's been warm-ish I really need fluids especially! It wasn't hot at all today, just lovely, but I was sweating quite a bit and I totally felt bonky at the end of my run. Lesson learned! I do miss running in TO, where I could bring my little fuel belt bottle and fill up at fountains if need be. There are not many fountains in Whitby.

"Don’t let negativity rent space in your brain for free. That is how you become a badass…by excavating her from inside you. You don’t have to become someone else. You need to identify the effing awesome parts of you that are your tools to work with, and maximize those." -Lauren Fleshman

Jwolf wrote:Question for a friend for those of you that use the Bob Revolution-

At what age did you start running with it? With or without the infant seat?

Please forgive me if this has been asked before-- it's hard to search all in one thread.

My friend's baby is 4 months old and they use the Bob for walking a lot. She went to the doctor for his 4-month shots but she forgot to ask the doctor about running with the baby.

Thanks!

I was running with the car seat adapter around that age (I wasn't that fast or going far). I know some people wait much longer because of head strength, but Owen was bionic and crawling at 5 months so muscle strength wasn't a worry. He was out of the carseat adapter shortly there after and you could set the BOB up really nicely for him to relax in. I know I was definitely running with him forward facing over that summer when he was 6-7 months since I remember running with friends and we would all take turns pushing him.

Jwolf wrote:Question for a friend for those of you that use the Bob Revolution-

At what age did you start running with it? With or without the infant seat?

Please forgive me if this has been asked before-- it's hard to search all in one thread.

My friend's baby is 4 months old and they use the Bob for walking a lot. She went to the doctor for his 4-month shots but she forgot to ask the doctor about running with the baby.

Thanks!

I think the official recommendation from BOB is that you can start running at 6 months with the baby in the main part of the stroller. I don't believe they officially recommend running with the car seat adapter. That being said, I started running with C at 4 months with my doc's ok (but really...you know your baby better than the doctor who sees them every couple of months for a few minutes). She was in the car seat at first because she was pretty wee and didn't fit the stroller part well yet.

I know lots of people run earlier with their babies and I've never heard of babies suffering injuries.

I agree with scrummy that the official recommendation is that the car seat adapter not be used for running. If you can't use the car seat adapter it means you have to wait until your baby is big enough and has enough head control to sit and be strapped into the regular stroller. For us, that was about 6 months. That said, I know people that do use the bucket in the BOB and are fine. I would have done it, but A's Dad knew someone who tipped their baby in the Bob while running so he wouldn't let me. I did find mine pretty unstable with the bucket in it but that was way back in 2010, maybe things have change since then.

Jwolf wrote:What do you mean "tipped their baby"? Did the whole stroller fall over or did the seat fall out? Isn't there an adapter that holds it in?

The whole stroller fell over. Yes, the adapter snaps the bucket to the stroller and there are also straps that additionally strap over the bucket. I always found it quite top heavy with the bucket and a bit unstable. Fine when going slow like walking but more likely to tip when going fast and over curbs running. But I never tried really running with it while using the bucket.

I always (and still do) slow down over curbs, and i tend to stick to a route that has long stretches of smooth new sidewalk and minimal up/downs when I run with the stroller. Bonus is that it connects with a bike path so that's perfect stroller running!

scrumhalfgirl wrote:I always (and still do) slow down over curbs, and i tend to stick to a route that has long stretches of smooth new sidewalk and minimal up/downs when I run with the stroller. Bonus is that it connects with a bike path so that's perfect stroller running!

And you are a queen of stroller running!

I miss the days when it was easy to just put baby in a stroller and go for a run. Although Amelia asked to go for a run around the block last week. So cute. She was pretty fast too! Maybe she will turn into a running partner someday.

scrumhalfgirl wrote:I always (and still do) slow down over curbs, and i tend to stick to a route that has long stretches of smooth new sidewalk and minimal up/downs when I run with the stroller. Bonus is that it connects with a bike path so that's perfect stroller running!

And you are a queen of stroller running!

I miss the days when it was easy to just put baby in a stroller and go for a run. Although Amelia asked to go for a run around the block last week. So cute. She was pretty fast too! Maybe she will turn into a running partner someday.

Get her on a bike!

If all that you read is everything you believe then let go, then let go, then let go.

It's been a while - how's everyone doing! I know Carm had a race this weekend and Fishpants is doing some great training in the middle of her move!

AFM, Felix is two months old now - time is flying by. I've been back running for about 6 weeks and feeling good. I did 12 km on Friday and felt very strong and not sore afterwards. I'm running about 4 days per week and then doing a bootcamp twice a week. I haven't been walking as much, since it's been so warm.

Running update here : none. I feel gross and un-fit. Also unmotivated so no one to blame but myself

Non-running update: life is good. Baby*Smiles will be 7 months old on Sunday. He's almost got the hang of sitting up independently. He's putting on weight, eating purées, laughing and currently fighting sleep (I write this as I rock him slowly back to sleep). I'm totally in love. Some days I find his dx hard - I worry about what *could be* - But usually a good night's sleep solves that worry. It's not worth my energy. Enjoying him is far better than worrying about what could be.

How do you find time to fit running in? Between work, puppy, house chores, baby and baby's weekly appointment schedule I find it difficult to motivate and fit it in. I'm not sure if your suggestions will help me motivate myself but I hope so! I am especially thinking about you IronDoll - you have 3!

When your legs get tired, run with your heart.

Overcome the notion that you must be regular. It robs you of your chance to be extraordinary.

I'm so glad to hear this update Smiles ! I've thought about you many times lately. Do you have a running stroller? That helps a lot. Life is good here too. Nathaniel turned 1 on Saturday!! He got his shots today, which is why I'm at home on RM instead of at work. He's the BEST. He's taking a few steps, and he waves, claps, and has a real sense of humour now. He loves his food and eats pretty much everything we eat, with the exception of spicy stuff. It's very, very busy and it's been an adjustment being back at work, but it's manageable. I have turned into a morning runner... never thought I could do it, and I don't like it, but it's the time at which I can guarantee that I'll get it in. Being motivated to do it is actually not hard for that reason... most days if I don't, a run doesn't happen, and the idea of that is worse to me than getting up early. I can sometimes get in an easy half hour stroller run after school, but if I do a harder workout I can't go to bed early enough. I leave school every day by 4, and I'm home by 5 usually. That gives me 2-3 hours of family time, which always flies by. It's quality time though... no computer, no phone. I joined Goodlife so I drive there in the am early, run, and then go to work. The difficult part is that right now I have 35 min max to run, 40 if traffic is amazing, so I have to be really thoughtful about what I do. Last week traffic was bad and I only had 25 min, so even though I was tired and I had done a speed workout the day before, the best use of my 25 min was a tempo run. Eventually I won't have to pump for half an hour at home before I leave, though, so I'll have some more time. I'm running the half this weekend, and I'm very "meh" about how I'll do. In the summer I thought I could reasonably try to be within 5 min of my pb (so under 1:44), but now, 10 min would be great, lol. I'm feeling pretty undertrained! My two best friends just ran 3:23 and 3:24 respectively though in their marathons, and they were "predicted" to do about 3:33 based on their halfs... they just went for it. So that's inspiring me. After labour, I know I am much tougher and more able to suffer! I'm not putting pressure on myself anyway. Whatever happens happens.

Oh! I forgot to mention! I had a podium finish last month at my 5K! I ran 22:26, 43 seconds off my pb (well my timed 5K pb anyway... my first half of sporting life was 21:05 but that's all downhill!), and was the second woman. That was fun and motivating. I'm excited about running again, that's for sure.

"Don’t let negativity rent space in your brain for free. That is how you become a badass…by excavating her from inside you. You don’t have to become someone else. You need to identify the effing awesome parts of you that are your tools to work with, and maximize those." -Lauren Fleshman

I'm not sure why this thread didn't appear in my unread ones over the summer. Strange!

I'm a bit late to the party but we started stroller running with A at 6 months after the ok from our doc. I didn't feel comfortable running with the bucket on top as I did find it to be quite top-heavy and we have a lot of high curbs in our neighbourhood. With the older BOBs (I bought mine used; it's a 2010 or 2011), it doesn't really lock onto the stroller. It's resting on top and then there's a strap that goes over the bucket. Perhaps the newer ones are more secure.

Smiles: I'm so thrilled to hear that B is doing so well! I'm sure that it's hard with the unknown but as you said, just enjoy it. It sounds like he's thriving and that's the most important thing. You and Mr*Smiles are doing a great job with him.

I'm lucky to have the whole year off with A so I do my runs during her morning nap. After breakfast and play-time, I pack her up in the BOB and she consistently drifts off after the 20 minute mark. It makes running 2x a week during weekdays quite manageable. I'm doing about 6-8k with the stroller and then doing my long runs on the weekend when Steve can watch her. I did a try a tri this past summer and a 10K about 3 weeks ago. I have my first PP 1/2m on Saturday. I feel good going into it but like QC I will be a bit nervous about how things will go. Training has been consistent although I haven't been doing much in the way of speedwork or tempo runs. I've only been doing moderate paced runs and pushing the BOB around, which is a hard work. We'll see how it goes!

A is doing great. She's almost 11 months and development has really taken off this past month. She's cruising, crawling everywhere, shifting body weight around to hopefully take her first step...and it seems that she really understands what we're saying in the language department. Steve taught her to say "daddy" and she says it consistently! I don't feel too jealous that she said daddy first since she has been babbling "mama" for a couple months now. She's on finger foods exclusively now and we are slowly introducing a fork and bowl. She is at daycare 2 mornings a week since we have the spot and are forking out the cash. She will transition to full-time in the next month before I go back to work on November 24. She really seems to be thriving there so it makes me feel more comfortable about being a working mom soon. I still feel a bit guilty though.